If you're familiar with Toronto, you know that there is a pretty strong divide between the east and west ends with Yonge Street being the dividing line. While I'm fond of both sides, I am an east ender at heart! I was born at Toronto East General, went to Earl Haig Public School, Westwood Junior High and East York Collegiate and then resided in Greektown/Riverdale for the last 8 consecutive years. I can basically do a tour of "Ashley Gibson, This is Your Life" whilst walking around the east side. That being said, there are lots of great things about where I'm living now and I'm making the adjustment. I love my 15-20 minute bike ride to work on the mornings I'm in the office/kitchen and there's lots of cute places around here that I'm quickly falling in love with. I'm planning to write a couple of posts on my fave spots from my old neighbourhood and then some of my new discoveries.
Part of moving into my new space has been adjusting to my new room. It's about half the size of my old room and has ZERO closet space. I did a whole lot of purging (with some very successful trips to Kind Exchange, Goodwill and Re: Reading) and the experience has encouraged me to work on being more of a minimalist. My previous room had been furnished, so with Lindsay's help I embarked on an Ikea adventure for some pieces to furnish my new space. I'm really happy with the pieces that I found - they're practical and fit the aesthetic I wanted for the room.
With Corbin's help, there was a bit of Tetris to determine the best configuration of my new room and I'm really happy with how it all worked out! I've got a great workspace for the days I work from home or want to sit and blog. I've also got enough space to do my workouts, which makes my life a lot easier! Corbin and I painted last weekend which included a lovely bright white on the walls, a new coat of paint for my bookcase to match the room and some bright sunshine-y yellow on the inside of the bookcase as well as some cubbies for storage. I'm so thankful for everything Corbin has done to help me get settled - he is such an incredible partner and (now) housemate!
With all the furniture in place and (nearly) everything unpacked, it's become time to add finishing touches to add some pizazz to the room. In a serendipitous moment, I received a message from the folks at Minted, highlighting their art marketplace. Minted carries an awesome selection of art (and other pretty things) by artists from all over the world. Artists submit their work and are entered into monthly art and design competitions where the Minted-goers help curate their selection.
I've spent more time than I'd like to admit browsing Minted's selection of artwork! There's a beautiful selection of art, photography and typography. On some prints, you can change the colours to suit the palate you're working with, which is a neat feature. I like that you can easily mark your favourites on your profile and also had fun playing with different configurations of pieces on my pin boards.
(Ohmigosh - the penguin!!)
To make life easy, there's also a variety of frame options that you can pair with your print to make sure you get it right up on your wall! Shipping to Canada for a framed print looks like it might be a bit steep, but if you're in the States the ground shipping option for framed prints doesn't look too bad. Unframed prints up to 16" x 20" come in mailers with protective pads to prevent bending and larger unframed prints are shipped in tubes with various shipping options.
Because of the number of artists who contribute to the marketplace, there really is something for everyone. Every time I see something that I think is my ABSOLUTE favourite, I find something else that changes my mind! I also like that you can easily choose which size you'd like the print in - it makes it super easy to find things that fit into your space, exactly the want you would want them.
Moving into a new space is exciting and I'm doing my best to take the time to make it 'just so'; I spend enough time in there, so I better love it! I'm excited to choose some gorgeous prints, frame 'em and get them up on my bare walls to really complete the room. Picking out art seems like such a grown up thing to do, but I'm happy to have a sweet resource to choose prints from and I'm looking forward to the end result!
This is a sponsored post brought to you by Minted. All opinions are my own, especially my fondness for all things yellow and that penguin print.
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